148 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY der, who probably derived her name from Carmen (' proph- ecy'). But the spring goddess Juturna, whose name was borne by several springs in Latium, came to be regarded as the wife of Janus and the mother of Fons or Fontus, i.e. of the spring itself conceived of as a god. 192. Among river gods at Rome pater Tibennus en- joyed the highest honors. A special priestly college, the Pontifices (' bridge-makers '), was commissioned with the duty of keeping in repair the pans sublicius, i.e. the bridge on piles leading over the river. The authority of the Pontifices was so great that they gradually rose into the position of a general court of control over all religious affairs. The very early period of their origin is indi- cated by a decision that no iron should be employed in putting up the bridge. The annual sacrifice of the so- called Argei was also of very ancient origin. On this occasion in later times figures made of rushes were cast from the bridge into the stream as a substitute for the earlier custom of sacrificing human beings. In Lavinium the god of the Numicius was worshiped ; in Umbria, the Clitumnus ; in Campania, the Volturnus. 193, Compared with these divinities, who were associ- ated with individual springs or individual rivers, Neptunus (' Neptune '), the representative of water in general, stood apparently, in the earlier period, quite in the back- ground. Nevertheless, in the hottest month, on the 23d of July, the Neptunalia were celebrated in his honor, probably to induce him to dispense the much- needed moisture. He first came to be considered the god of the sea by being identified with Poseidon, whose worship was introduced into Rome in the year 399 B.C. by order of the Sibylline books.
